Rework Book

Rework is a book for entrepreneurs by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. A noticable difference between startup businesses and established corporations is the way each type of organization gets things done.

Every organization should have meetings with a purpose (and hopefully provide
decisive resolution), plan as needed (but not try to plan more than necessary),
follow processes (which provide actual value), and constantly improve and be
more efficient. Of course, this is easy to say and hard to execute (and
under-appreciated when it is executed well).

However, it is hard to codify what the focus should be, why something should be
done (or not done), and how to get something done. Large corporations have
established processes and senior people who help guide others. Startups do
not. Unlike large corporations, small businesses do not have many
resources. There must be a maniacal focus on doing things that matter and
getting things done.

Rework is collection of values and beliefs of an effective entrepreneur. Each
chapter is a concise gem of knowledge. I would love to quote the entire book,
but here are some select quotes which I found fun:

Workaholics

Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up.
The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get
things done.

– Chapter 2 - Takedowns

One of the lessons I have learned (and sometimes re-learn) is to automate as
much as possible. If you always run through a series of actions, automate them.
If you have to install a piece of software on a virtual machine to demo to
stakeholders every week, automate the process. If you always run through a
series of steps to issue a pull request, automate it. And don’t just automate
it. Make it fast.

Rhythm of Making Choices

You want to get into the rhythm of making choices. When you get in that
flow of making decision after decision, you build momentum and boost morale.
Decisions are progress. Each one you make is a brick in your foundation.
You can’t build on top of “We’ll decide later,” but you can build on top of
“Done.”

– Chapter 4 - Progress

You also can’t build on top of decisions that get undone. One of
the hardest things to do is to say “no” and actually leave a great sounding
feature intentionally on the cutting floor.

Hire Great Writers

That’s because being a good writer is about more than writing. Clear
writing is a sign of clear thinking. Great writers know how to communicate.
They make things easy to understand. They can put themselves in someone
else’s shoes. They know what to omit. And those are qualities you want in
any candidate.

– Chapter 9 - Hiring

Impactful and concise writing is something I wish every developer would have.

I highly recommend reading the book to get an understanding of what is
valuable for starting and running a profitable business.

Some Apps I Use

Intro to Docker Machine

Docker Machine is one of the new tools that Docker has released. It helps provision machines on a variety of cloud hosting providers and installs Docker with some basic security. The command line interface is pretty simple.